Special Items

Introduction

Special items are items received after praying at a Spiritual Shrine. They are placed in the slot adjacent to the spell slot, and are either lost upon death or destroyed after one use. Picking up a second special item will replace your first one.

Hermes' Boots

Regular floor spikes can be walked on.

It does NOT prevent damage from wall or ceiling spikes or prevent spike traps from triggering and causing damage, like P.A.D. does.

If a Paladin blocks while standing on floor spikes, it will activate the shield and use mana.

Charon's Obol

Allows you to enter the castle without paying Charon's toll. It will be used the next time you enter the castle; you cannot choose not to use it. Very useful for getting a large pool of gold for the more expensive upgrades.

"Oh hoh ho! So you have my obol. I will let you pass for free, but only this time." -Charon

Hedgehog's Curse

Taking damage will result in a portion of your gold being dropped and scattered around you in the form of coins, much like a certain well-known blue hedgehog. A total of 50 coins are scattered, equivalent to the value of one diamond (500 gold with no Bounty bonus), and a corresponding amount of gold is removed from your total.

The amount of gold deducted is adjusted based on the current Bounty bonus, making it impossible to use the curse to gain money. The only exception is the additional Bounty added by New Game +2 and above, thus allowing the curse to be used to farm gold in those modes.

Gold is removed on the killing blow to a player. If Death Defy triggers then the dropped coins will be still inside the player when they are revived, and thus will be picked up immediately.

Calypso's Compass

A compass appears at the top of the screen, pointing to the location of a secret room, When found, the secret room will appear as an otherwise unmarked area of a random room, but will display a "press up" icon when the player stands directly in front of it. The secret room will contain 2 chests, which are usually Blueprints or Stats Up. Once the secret room has been exited, Calypso's Compass disappears.

Multiple Compasses can be obtained in the same round. Each will point to a new secret room with unopened chests, even if a previous secret room has been found and looted.

The location of the secret room may change between save/quit and boss fights.

Nerdy Glasses

Corrects the Color Blindness, Stereo Blindness, Nearsighted, Farsighted, Nostalgic, and Vertigo traits; does not counteract Glaucoma or The One. It also makes hidden items visible and allows for the player to see the correct chest in Miserly Elf's 3-chest gamble game.

Nerdy Glasses cannot be obtained from the shrine unless the player has one of the traits it corrects.

Helios' Blessing

Enemies always drop gold when killed, does not affect chests.

Hyperion's Ring

Give the Hero one guaranteed Death Defy for the current round. The Hero is revived at 25% HP.

Alexander's Obol

After you die, you are forced to give this Obol to Charon. Its effect permanently carries over to all future runthroughs so you only need to give it to him once. Allows you to re-enter the Alexander boss room where you are warped to a special stage: "Sir Wagner VS Alexander the IV". Your character is changed to a level 0 Hokage with two vault runes and high level equipment (dark sword, dark helm, retribution chestplate, retribution bracers, sky cape) and the teleport magic spell. You face against an extremely tough level 275 version of Alexander. The arena is surrounded by spikes with four platforms, separated into two (left/right) by more spikes, although it is possible to jump from one side to the other using the Hokage replacement technique. If you die in the special stage, you are transported back to your regular game with no punishment, able to retry the challenge.

Khidr's Obol

After you die, you are forced to give this Obol to Charon. Its effect permanently carries over to all future runthroughs, so you only need to give it to him once. Allows you to enter previously completed Khidr's boss room, where you will fight a massively buffed version of that boss - Neo Khidr, whose attack patterns are much the same, but it is Level 275 - with an updated (and much more difficult) version of the arena. The player becomes a level 0 female Spellsword named Lady McSwordy with 248 health, 50 mana, 35 strength, 232 magic, and 25 armor. The player is also given a two vault runes, one sprint rune, two haste runes, the Blade Wall spell, and Nerdy Glasses to counteract her Vertigo trait. Dying will return a player to outside the boss room.

Herodotus's Obol

Allows you to enter the previously completed Herodotus boss room, where you will fight Astrodotus and Herodotus. The player becomes a level 0 female Dragon with 250 health, 50 mana, and only haste runes. The arena consists of a single small platform centered in a large open area. Both bosses fly around the stage and will veer towards the player when possible. Herodotus is very aggressive and much faster, while Astrodotus moves much more slowly. The horizontal and vertical edges of the arena loop infinitely, making the boss fight highly similar to the classic arcade game Asteroids. All attacks do 100 damage (enough to split Astrodotus) and contact with either boss inflicts 100 damage. Dying will return a player to outside the boss room.

Ponce de Leon's Obol

Allows you to enter the previously completed Ponce de Leon boss room, where you will fight Ponce de Freon. The arena is a large room with three platforms near the ceiling. The player becomes the Barbarian King Sir Dovhakiin with 495 HP (five hits), 60 MP, and six air jumps. Dying will return the player to outside the boss room.

Traitor's Obol

After completing all the upgraded versions of the bosses, you will be able to get the "Traitor's Obol" from a shrine. After giving this Obol to Charon, any boss chamber that you have previously completed will lead you to a fight, where you play Johannes the Traitor with 700Hp and 300Mp, using his multiple-daggers, multiple-axes spell, and dash blade wall that you activate by dashing and then activating your magic spell while in the middle of the dash. You will fight against two copies of yourself with more HP and MP. Once you have won, you will earn the achievement "Syngenesophobia" and be able to play as the new class "Traitor".

Using the Traitor class to enter Johannes' room will then give you the achievement "Katagelasticism"

Trivia

The Hedgehog's Curse is a reference to Sonic the Hedgehog, where the titular character drops (all) collected rings when hurt.
Hyperion's Ring is a reference to the titan Hyperion of Greek myth, who was the father of Helios and had the power of life.
Calypso´s Compass is a reference to Pirates of the Caribbean.
Helios' blessing refers to the Greek sun god. He was said to ride a golden chariot and carry the sun across the sky. He also was known to be wealthy.
Charon's Obol is a reference to the ancient Greek practice of placing coin(s) in the mouth or on the face of a dead person, which would then be used to pay Charon to ferry their souls into the land of the dead.
There is a glitch where if you pray at a statue and receive a boss opal and then find another statue and pray at it you will permanently lose the ability to access the second version of the boss. NOTE: This does not seem to happen on latest version of Rogue Legacy (written on 20/10/2014). Herodotus Obol appeared on two consecutive runs, having been discarded on the first run.